Equipment cabinets are used to house mechanical, electronic, electrical and related equipment so that the equipment is protected from damage, and that personnel are protected from coming into contact with dangerous machinery, voltages or the like. Many equipment cabinet designs have standardized dimensions to conform to one of several industry standard equipment form factors and provide for efficient and esthetically pleasing structures and to meet a variety of environmental and durability requirements. Designs may differ in detail depending on a specific application, and may be in the from of an open structure with vertical rails on the sides to support equipment bolted into holes in the racks having standardized spacing, may have side panel closures, and may have front and rear closures. The front and rear closures may be doors, which are on hinges, and may be lockable. The terms equipment enclosure, rack, cabinet, and the like, may actually refer to a structure performing the same or similar function, or adaptable to do so. A person of skill in the art will understand that the apparatus disclosed herein is encompassed by the functional aspects of the common equivalent terminologies.
Vertical equipment support rails may be integral to the cabinet such as end posts, may be a component of structure, and may be bolted or welded together, and to a top and a base, for structural rigidity. For supporting heavy equipment, such as storage batteries, a series of longitudinal rails may be connected between the front and rear vertical rails on each side of the cabinet, and a plurality of cross-rails bolted to the longitudinal rails to create a support on which storage batteries, for example, may be placed. For equipment such as batteries, which may not be fitted with flanges or bolt holes to attach to the vertical or horizontal rails, it may be necessary to provide additional retaining structures. Such structures require a significant amount of assembly time.
In another aspect, it is known that such racks or cabinets may be provided with mounting holes in the vertical members located near the corners of the rack, and having mounting-hole spacings in accordance with one of several industry standards. For example, a spacing between pairs of holes has a period of 1.75″ (44.45 mm) for equipment meeting EIA-310-D (Electronic Industries Alliance, formerly Electronic Industries Association). In this configuration, the usable height is often specified in units of “U”, each one being a height interval of 1.75″. Similarly, the equipment may meet an older standard (WECO, Western Electric Co.) having a periodicity of 2″, or a similar standard promulgated by ESTI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute). Other aspects of the construction, such as the type and thickness of the material, and the like may be likewise defined. The typical arrangement of mounting holes is that two holes are provided for each standard height increment, and the pair of holes has a different spacing than the spacing between pairs of holes representing the height increment. This assists in determining the corresponding holes to be used on the opposite side of rack.
While it is convenient to describe the construction using standard dimensions, and combinations of structures, nothing herein is intended to suggest that the dimensions or arrangements are limited to such standard dimensions and structures, as the apparatus described herein is adaptable to a wide variety of support and enclosure applications.